


The Way You Look At Him

by neil4god



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Cuddles, Derek is a Failwolf, F/M, Insular Pack, Jealousy, M/M, No dialogue (so not like me!), Oblivious Stiles, Protective Pack, Scenting, Stiles is done with college, Territorial Derek, outside pov, rebuilding Hale house
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-01
Updated: 2015-07-01
Packaged: 2018-04-07 04:56:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,550
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4250202
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/neil4god/pseuds/neil4god
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Their relationship wasn't perfect, no-one's ever was, but she didn't know how broken it was until she met Stiles. Derek never smiled at her like that, he didn't rush home early from work to make her dinner or pick up her favourite snacks like he did for Stiles. Derek didn't look at her the way he looked at Stiles and she was starting to think that maybe Derek wasn't a commitment-phobe like she thought, maybe he just didn't want to commit to her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Way You Look At Him

They’ve been dating for a couple of months when Derek introduces her to Stiles. He’d been interning somewhere in New York and Derek hadn’t seen him in months so he’s almost puppy-like in his excitement. It’s cute and she likes Stiles. He’s smart and funny and unlike all of Derek’s other friends, he actually likes her. Derek’s friends are seriously tight and she wonders sometimes how Derek became friends with them in the first place. They’re all younger than him and they seem to be weirdly over-protective, they treat her to harsh glares and curt replies. 

Honestly it’s so nice spending time with someone who genuinely makes an effort to be nice to her that she doesn’t notice all the other stuff, not at first anyway. It started small, she knows that much, but she brushed it aside as Derek being excited to see his friends. All those long hugs and random touches, fingers trailing across skin, well Derek is a tactile person, all of his friends are. Sure it seemed a little weird how Derek would inhale lungfuls of Stiles’ scent and run blunt fingers through Stiles’ hair while they watched a movie, but tactile people do that, sometimes, maybe. She puts it down to missing his friend. After all they haven’t seen each other in person for nearly a year and a half, something about college and internships and conflicting schedules. 

The little things start to build up quite quickly though, soon Derek is spending more time with Stiles than her and it’s Stiles who has to remind him to call her. She hears him in the background of every phone call. He hollers out a greeting and continues chatting to Derek whatever and somehow it always seems to make Derek laugh. Whenever she sees him now he’s laughing or smiling and it makes her feel good. When they first met, Derek was all growls and grumpy cat face, but now he’s happy and cheerful and it makes her heart expand in her chest and then rocket down to her stomach when she realizes he’s smiling and laughing at something Stiles said. He doesn’t smile like that for her, not even when she did that thing with her tongue that he loves so much. She ignores it though, blusters through and convinces herself that it’s ok. They are ok. Stiles is just his friend and people are always different with their friends than with their girlfriends. Right? 

Girlfriends are for spending romantic time with, sharing dreams and hopes and life goals with. Girlfriends should be held close and made to feel wanted. They should at the very least after nearly four months of dating be allowed to leave a few necessities in his loft. It’s not much to ask, she doesn’t want a drawer or a key to the apartment, she just wants to be able to leave her toothbrush in his bathroom. Apparently he has issues with that though. It’s not a big thing, she knows how he is. He hates it when anyone moves something and none of his friends are ever allowed to leave their shit lying around. He’s a neat freak and yes it means that eventually when they move in together she won’t have to do any of the cleaning, right now it kind of pisses her off. It’s a toothbrush! 

This is when she finally gets a clue because while she can’t leave a toothbrush, Stiles can leave a clean set of clothes and however many things he likes. She hadn’t even known they were his until she shrugged into a faded red hoody on a rainy day and Derek flipped. He didn’t want her wearing Stiles’ things, which while kinda’ sweet in a territorial way, highlighted a few things for her. He way he snatched it back from her and cradled it close like something precious just made it even more obvious. He wasn’t being territorial over her. It was at that moment that Stiles waltzed into the loft juggling bags from Ikea and stumbling to a halt in between them. He dropped the bags, shifted to Derek side and smiled so fucking brightly that she felt blinded. She could barely even focus on what he was saying, too busy wondering if he’d used a key or if the door had been unlocked for him. It wasn’t until he mentioned the bags that she zoned back in. Derek was looking more relaxed, his zen face on as Stiles nattered about soft furnishings and colour schemes and how he just had to get them for the new house and what new house? Stiles was living with his dad until he settled into his new job, he had no plans to move anywhere just yet, had told her several times how much the waiting was killing him, but he had to do it. At the time she’d been a bit confused, sure it made sense to be financially safe before moving into a new place, but if he wanted it so badly then why didn’t he just do it? The way he was staring up at Derek as he talked about sitting rooms and construction finally made the pieces snap into place. He was waiting for Derek to finish building the house she knew nothing about. 

They were moving in together, not an uncommon thing for friends to do, but then why hadn’t she known about it? Obviously Stiles assumed she did, looking back, that much is clear at least. But Derek never mentioned it. Stiles is pulling mint green cushions with bright pink flamingos out of the bags and grinning up at Derek like he hangs the moon and the way Derek’s staring back . . . fuck! She doesn’t have to think about what to take because she doesn’t have anything here and that should say a lot. She grabs her bag and shoves her feet into her shoes and bolts. Stiles calls after her, confused and worried because he’s a nice guy and he has no idea what’s going on. For him this is normal, the way Derek touches him and smells him, how they talk twenty times a day no matter what and it’s so fucking obvious! 

Derek doesn’t so much as call her name, she lingers a little at the elevator, not sure why she isn’t more upset by this. She should be crying and angry and hysterical just like every other breakup she’d ever gone through. None of her past relationships had been like this though, Derek had let her watch his life through a pyrex glass, able to look in but never touch. Maybe that’s why it didn’t hurt so much now. She could hear them arguing, Stiles shouting, demanding to know what the fuck was going on, but Derek’s voice was barely a whisper through the door. It didn’t matter what Derek told him, Stiles would stay with him no matter what, he’d been there for their entire relationship. Derek told her about him on their first date and would cut other dates short or arrange them around his skype dates with Stiles. Sometimes he would blow her off completely because he’d been talking to Stiles all night and slept right through her calls. She thought he was playing it cool, she thought he was just a bit of a commitment-phobe, she never thought it was because he’d already committed to someone else! 

Squaring her shoulders to stepped into the lift and stabbed at the ground button. She was better off, she wouldn’t have to deal with his obnoxious friends, although now it made sense why they hated her at first sight! She wouldn’t have to listen to him wax on about Stiles’ new body wash and how much he preferred the old one (it came as no surprise that Stiles changed back to the old one after less than a week), most of all she was looking forward to no more awkward silences. The ones that used to echo around the loft when Stiles casually mentioned something he assumed she knew about Derek, it tended to focus on his family and past. It always left her feeling out of the loop and inadequate. Stiles knew everything about Derek but she didn’t even know his favourite colour; she mistakenly thought it was blue, Stiles told her it was red and Derek smiled like of course it’s red Stiles, just like every item of clothing you’ve ever worn and holy shit, that’s why! 

By the time she got to her car, ripped up the ticket, because god dammit Derek gave Stiles the extra parking pass instead of her, she was feeling like a weight had fallen off her shoulders. Screw Derek Hale, he was grumpy and mopey and didn’t deserve to be with someone as amazing as her. Frankly she didn’t think he deserved Stiles either, but every single person in Beacon Hills who’d ever glared at her when she walked hand in hand with Derek, would likely disagree. She was getting out of this no-name town before it swallowed her hole, she would move on, find someone better. She was through accepting second best, she wanted someone to look at her the way Derek looked at Stiles and she wasn’t going to give up until she got it.


End file.
